


her famous lawn chair handcuff dance

by atlas_oulast



Series: Thalia McCarthy Fics [3]
Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Background Relationships, Established Relationship, Fainting, Gen, High School, Rent References, School Play, Useless Lesbians, not really but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-13 09:03:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18937753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlas_oulast/pseuds/atlas_oulast
Summary: Thalia gets the role of Mimi Marquez in RENT.And she’s a queen.





	her famous lawn chair handcuff dance

**Author's Note:**

> this is a stupid fic and not the most well written and the ending is stoopid but I’m posting it cuz wtf! i wanna! also thalia as mimi!!!!!!!!

“I’m going to try out for the next musical,” Thalia said.

She and Jeremy were hanging out after school, since Thalia had a little bit of time before work and needed to sleep some anyway, having not slept in three days after working many a graveyard shift at Walmart and McDonald’s, and Jeremy was more than happy to cuddle her.

They were cuddling at that moment, in his bed, Jeremy’s arms around her. As usual, she was the little spoon.

She just wasn’t quite ready to sleep yet, is all, and they kept bringing up things and having mini conversations about them, before they’d stop talking, lay in silence for a bit, and then someone else would bring something else up.

Which brought them to now.

“Really?” Jeremy asked.

“Yeah, I was kinda sad I didn’t do Dear Evan Hansen with you, Brooke, and Christine, and sure, I’ll have to be very careful about my work hours, but I’ll be fine.”

“Awesome.”

“Do you know what musical we’re doing?”

“Ahh... lemme think about that, I know Christine told me...” Jeremy trailed off and was silent for a few moments, before continuing, “It’s either going to be A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, that one where the dude eighth in line for being a duke or something kills off the line of succession, or Rent. I think Mr. Reyes is still deciding?”

“A Gentleman’s Guide is cool, I don’t think either of the leading ladies are in my range, though, and the theatre program doesn’t really have enough people for an ensemble.”

“Maybe you can be the person who plays all the people the dude kills.”

“Oh, that’d be fun. I think I like the idea of doing Rent better, though, that’s one of my favourites.”

“And what’s your favourite?”

“Waitress, I ugly cried listening to that.”

“Ohh, that’s coming to town soon, maybe we should go.”

Thalia craned her neck to look back at him indignantly. “Do you want to go see Waitress or see me ugly cry for a non-angsty reason?”

“Both?” Jeremy said with a sheepish smile.

Thalia flicked his forehead teasingly, and shifted back around, snuggling back into him.

“I wonder who you’d play in Rent. Would you be a good Mark, I wonder?”

“Eh, maybe? He’s my favourite character besides Angel, but... I really don’t know who I’d play. I’m open to anything, really.”

“Congratulations, Jer! You’re going to be the female Seasons of Love soloist.”

Jeremy tried to hit that high C on the fly. Emphasis on tried. It was squeaky and his voice cracked, and Thalia squirmed with giggles in his arms.

“Okay, maybe not,” she laughed.

“Who’d you play, then, Lia? Seasons of Love soloist?”

“Unlike you, I can actually hit that note, so, you know, maybe. I kinda like the idea of doing Joanne, I really like Mimi but I doubt I’d get her.”

“You could totally do Mimi.”

“I’ve never been in the drama club before, what makes you think Mr. Reyes would give me a leading role?”

“Well, number one you’re a senior, number two all the other seniors have had leading roles. Brooke did Annabeth in The Lightning Thief last spring, plus Lady Macbeth in the winter, I had Evan Hansen, Christine had Zoe, and also she’s done Blanche Dubois and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Anastasia, because for awhile there was barely anyone doing drama at all.”

“Goodness gracious. And there’s no other seniors?”

“Lily and Josh are freshmen, Meryl and Dana and Eliot are sophomores, Luke and Adam are juniors, and everyone else is a sophomore.”

“Good grief.”

“So, yeah, you could probably get whatever role you wanted, since you’re a good singer.”

“I guess... what if I did Joanne and you did Mark? Doing Tango Maureen together would be loads of fun.”

“Oh, that would be!”

“I still like the idea of Mimi, but Meryl’s probably better for that than I am.”

“She doesn’t have the voice for Mimi, she’s a soprano, that’s, like, an alto role. You’re, like, an alto.”

“I’m a mezzo, and Mimi can be played by a mezzo or alto, but Meryl’s a low enough soprano that’d it work.”

“Stop being self deprecating, you’d be a great Mimi.”

Thalia hummed in acknowledgment, at this point, just ready to sleep, she only had an hour before she’d have to leave and go work until one in the morning.

Jeremy picked up on that, and held her the tiniest bit tighter, and shifted, getting into a slightly more comfortable position.

Thalia closed her eyes and made a barely audible noise of contentment.

“I love you,” Jeremy said, his chin tucked over the top of her head.

“Love you too, dork.”

* * *

 

Audition day might’ve been one of the most stressful days of Thalia’s life.

She was running on three shots of five hour energy and maybe forty five minutes of sleep she’d gotten in chemistry class the day before. Yeah, maybe she shouldn’t work nights so much, but as a high schooler who had to provide for herself and a one year old and also make sure she didn’t loose her emancipation order that she’d got when her dad went to jail, it was convenient.

She’d just about blasted her ears out with her audition song over the past few days, Dead Girl Walking from Heathers, to memorise it.

It was a little higher than she probably should be trying to go, but it would showcase her vocal skill set well enough, she was pretty sure. Christine had approved the song, and she was basically an expert on musical theatre and singing, so she’d probably be fine.

Another thing Thalia had had to do was get a dance ready. Christine had an entire YouTube playlist of audition dances, praise the lord, so she’d found one that’d work and rehearsed mostly in the parking lot before and after school, or whenever she could at home, when she wasn’t trying to sleep or take care of her daughter.

And now it was time to put all that work... to work. She was fairly certain that she’d bomb her audition, and told Jeremy so when he showed up, Christine in hand.

“Oh, don’t be silly, Thalia, you’ll do great. You’ve been preparing well and you’ve got the talent to pull this off,” Christine said supportively.

“You’ll do great, Lia, I believe in you,” Jeremy added.

Brooke came in a few minutes later, and Thalia pretty much clutched her like a giant teddy bear you’d win from some sort of state fair, resting her head on her girlfriend’s shoulder.

“I’m stressed and tired, Brooke,” Thalia whined in a joking tone.

“Poor baby,” Brooke said, stroking her hair and kissing the top of her head. “You’ll do great.”

Auditions were done alphabetically, and Thalia’s name began with an M. Most everyone else had names coming before that, the exceptions being Adam (Robinson) and Lily (Zeger.)

So she got to watch everyone else go up, and let her nerves gather. Christine was dazzlingly spectacular as always, Jeremy was really good, Brooke was fucking amazing, and everyone else was also great.

How the fuck would she compete with these kids?

Finally, Josh (Manchester) finished. He was a no-brainer for Collins, he was awesome.

“Thalia McCarthy?” Mr. Reyes read out.

Thalia walked up to the stage, handing the pianist (a girl named Cherrie who was attending college down in Red Bank) her sheet music, and then breathed.

Breathe. These people aren’t going to hurt me. These people just want to see me perform.

So she performed.

Afterwards, she didn’t remember one bit of it.

“I blew it, right?” She sighed, plopping back down with her friends as Adam took the stage.

Brooke gave her a confused look. “Blew it? Thalia, you were awesome.”

“Rent’s cancelled, we’re doing Heathers and Lia’s being Veronica,” Jeremy said.

“I honestly don’t remember anything about it. I swear. Not Heathers, my audition.”

“Well, you were kinda incredible, Thalia,” Brooke said, leaning over to peck her on the cheek.

“Just kinda?” Thalia teased.

“Dumbass,” Brooke said, booping her on the nose.

After everyone was done with the audition song and dance portion, they had to sing a song from the show, a song for the character they’d like, preferably, and if they didn’t have a preference or didn’t know, Mr. Reyes would give them a song.

Again, they went alphabetically, Christine going second with a killer rendition of Over the Moon, and Jeremy a bit later did One Song Glory. He wanted Mark, but Roger was also in the same range, and he wouldn’t mind Roger either.

Brooke went on shortly after, going for just a solo version of Seasons of Love. She didn’t really care which character she got, just wanted a role.

Then came Josh, with Santa Fe, and then Thalia had to go.

“What song will you be doing, Mrs. McCarthy?” Mr. Reyes asked. She didn’t love being called that, but wasn’t going to push the issue.

“Out Tonight,” she said, and Cherrie, overhearing, flipped to that page in her book of sheet music.

Cherrie gave her a few seconds to compose herself, plus three warning notes, before launching into the actual song.

Thalia sang. She remembered looking out to the small audience during the second verse, remembering a brief fear for hitting a note before hitting it, and that fear disappearing, but the rest was a blur.

She and her friends went out to grab a quick lunch afterwards before Brooke had to go visit her grandmother and Jeremy was going to go home with Christine and Thalia was going to work for six hours.

“You’re all getting parts because you three are amazing, and I blew the whole thing,” Thalia said, taking a bite of her meal (a salad, having been the cheapest thing on the menu.)

“What? No, Thalia, you’re amazing. I’m not just saying that to be nice,” Christine said.

“I just don’t think I did all that well! My singing is mediocre at best and I really don’t remember much about it.”

“The stress, that’s probably why you don’t remember,” Jeremy said. “You might not want to do that opening night.”

“You say that as if I’ll even be in opening night.”

“Okay. Thalia. Shut the fuck up, and be fucking positive, for once,” Brooke said, with a tone of voice Thalia had never heard before. Not angry, just... peeved? Annoyed? Tough love? Probably the last one.

“Fine. I’m... I’m positive I’ll at least get some sort of part,” Thalia said, in a jokingly grudging tone.

“There you go,” Brooke said, kissing her on the nose. God, she loved her girlfriend.

* * *

 

When the cast list came out, Thalia was actually well rested, for once. She just didn’t want to check it.

“You have to check the cast list for me, I’m too scared,” she announced to Jeremy, whom she’d called after two minutes of debating whether to look at the list or not.

“Thalia, just check it,” Jeremy said.

“No. I refuse.”

“I know you got a part, so just check!”

“Check for me and just tell me on a scale of one to ten how much I should check? Please?” Thalia realised a little late that that system was a little flawed, Jeremy could and probably would say ten no matter what. Oh well.

“Okay, fine,” he said, and Thalia heard faint background noises, probably him on his computer, and then brief silence.

“Ten. Ten, go check it now, Lia.”

“Are you just saying that to be nice?”

“Go fucking check it.”

She clicked the link she’d been emailed, finally, and watched as her browser redirected and the page slowly loaded, then scrolled down slightly.

 **MIDDLEBOROUGH** **HIGH** **SPRING** **MUSICAL** \- **RENT**

 **CAST** **LIST**

 **Mark** **Cohen** : John Abrams

 **Roger** **Davidson** : Jeremy Heere

 **Collins** : Joshua Manchester

 **Mimi** **Marquez** : Thalia McCarthy

 **Maureen** **Johnson** : Christine Canigula

 **Joanne** **Jefferson** : Brooke Lohst

 **Benjamin** **Coffin** **The** **Third** : Adam Robinson

 **Angel** **Dumott**   **Schunard** : Luke Johnson

 **Seasons** **of** **Love** **Male** **Soloist** : Eliot Kenny

 **Seasons** **of** **Love** **Female** **Soloist** : Meryl Chandram

 **Ensemble** / **Other** : Lily Zelger, Anthony Andrews, Tyler Evans, & Shana Jansen.

And all Jeremy heard for the next sixty to ninety seconds was shocked and excited Thalia squeals.

“See, told you you’d get a part, Lia,” Jeremy laughed.

“Holy fuck! She’s my dream role, my favourite character from the musical, I freaking love her and now I get to play her holy shit holy shit holy shit... you’re my love interest.”

And then they both busted a rib laughing.

“Good grief, I’m going to have to kiss you,” Thalia laughed.

“That’s going to be... well...” and he burst into awkward laughter again.

“Are you upset you didn’t get Mark?”

“Not really, Mark’s great, but Mark doesn’t have One Song Glory. That’s my favourite.”

“Okay, true. Plus you get to learn guitar.”

“I played it in middle school, I ought to be fine. And playing an instrument onstage will be fun.”

“Yeah. But we have to _kiss_.”

“Hey, I’m not particularly happy about that either.”

“I’m just processing.”

* * *

 

If just talking about having to kiss was awkward, having to actually do it was even worse.

They managed to hold off until the third rehearsal, since they’d mostly been doing vocal stuff and trying to memorise dialogue and crap. But now they were going to have to, like, practice kissing.

They were sitting on top of one of the metal tables, facing each other but looking at the somewhat shiny surface of the table. Thalia’s legs hung off the side, and Jeremy sat cross legged.

“So. Um. Kissing,” Jeremy began.

“Gross, boy kissy, ew ew,” Thalia joked, sending Jeremy into more awkward laughter.

“I really don’t want to do this, Thalia.”

“Neither do I. I’m way too gay for this.”

“I’m bi and all, but... and I love you but-“

“Yeah, this is so weird.”

“How passionately do we have to kiss, anyway?”

“I think the Out Tonight kiss we can do lightly enough, the one for I Should Tell You doesn’t last that long but it’s gotta be kiiinda passionate? The La Vie Boheme B kiss is like three seconds and we’re pretty far away from the audience, so we just have to kinda look like we’re toes passionate. Without You is passionate-ish, and Your Eyes and Finale B... that’s when we have to like, suck face or whatever.”

“Fuck.”

“Maybe let’s just... practice kissing? To get used to it? Probably we shouldn’t try and suck face yet, also that’d be weird,” Thalia suggested.

“Okay... goddamn I hate this.”

“Yeah, so do I. So... shit, I initiate most of these kisses.”

“And, you know, with what happened with Chloe... and I don’t want to kiss you, and having you have to initiate these...” Jeremy trailed off uncomfortably.

“Shit, that’s right. We might be fucked?”

“Let’s just try, okay?”

“Just... don’t hide it if you get upset? If you feel shitty let’s not make it worse, and besides,  I’m gonna feel guilty about this anyway.”

“Got it.”

The first kiss, they barely even touched their lips together. And Thalia pretty much immediately pulled back.

“Ugh, boy lips.”

Jeremy pouted at her. “Are my lips not rich and plump enough for you, Lia?”

“Oh my god, stop!” Thalia shrieked, smiling but blushing like a tomato and wishing she had something to throw at him. “That’s disgusting, and you’re making this worse!”

It took many, many tries to actually manage to kiss each other, and they both didn’t exactly enjoy it.

“We have to practice, like, a ton, though, so we don’t look like we’ve got a lemon or something shoved up our mouths when we’re actually performing,” Thalia said.

“Lia, I hate this so much.”

“Me too. I’m never going to kiss you again after this.”

* * *

Tech week, unfortunately, was a thing, and Thalia had to work night shifts _every_ _single_ _night_ of tech week. Not ideal, to put it lightly.

She’d fucking begged her variousmanagers to let her not work nights that week, but none of them had budged, so Thalia was stuck.

One thing she did do, was get sort of caught up on sleep the day before the first day of tech week, and Brooke rapidly offered to come cuddle her, which she was very happy to accept.

With about six hours of sleep under her belt, Thalia entered tech week.

She hadn’t gotten off her job waiting tables at O’ Charley’s until eleven the previous night, after cleaning the restaurant up for fifteen minutes, and riding her bike home in the dark and picking up Olive from the special nighttime daycare centre took her an hour altogether, and while six hours was more than she usually would have, it wouldn’t last her all week.

The first two days, she was mostly okay. They rehearsed La Vie Boheme for three hours straight on day one and a number of things on day two filled up those three hours, and they also got their finalised costumes day two.

She felt like a nineteen year old dancer in her act one outfit, and still just a seventeen year old in most of her other outfits, but that didn’t actually matter, because she still looked so fucking cool.

Day three was when Thalia really started slowing down, and she was barely present for most of rehearsal, but doing her best for someone who’d done nothing but flip burgers all night long rather than sleep.

After rehearsal, she had half an hour before she needed to go to work again, so she found Brooke, sitting down against a wall talking to Christine, and collapsed next to her, and laid her head in her girlfriend’s lap.

“You tired, Thalia?” Brooke giggled, ruffling her hair.

“Wake me up in half an hour, dearest,” and then she conked out immediately.

Brooke confessed when she woke her up, she’d given her an extra ten minutes, but Thalia was too tired to care.

Day four, Thalia wanted nothing at all more than to just go to sleep, but noo, they had to rehearse the entire last thirty minutes of the show six times.

Afterwards, she made it to one of the metal tables they’d use in the show, and curled up on it, but despite being really, really exhausted, couldn’t get comfortable.

“Oh, come here, Lia,” Jeremy said, and he helped her up and took her to one of the walls, and held her while she fell asleep on his shoulder and he used her head as a pillow himself.

Day five was just a blur, Thalia didn’t have time that day to sleep any at all, having tests back to back in three periods straight, which she would probably pass because she was good at school even when sleep deprived, but she definitely didn’t do as well as she could’ve.

She also had to be at work twenty minutes after rehearsal ended, and because she probably would want most of that time to not have to rush on her bike because if there was ever a recipe for disaster it was a sleep deprived teenager, a bicycle, and roads without bike lanes.

So immediately after rehearsing Out Tonight and Another Day for the hundredth time or something, she kissed Brooke goodbye quickly and went to go to work.

Thalia ended up being really sorry for all the people she waited on that night, and all that person who was buying three bottles of wine and fourteen cases of beer at two in the morning because she could barely see straight to type the necessary information in.

That dude seemed understanding enough after she told him she hadn’t slept in five nights, but one of her coworkers nearly had to step in because her vision was all wonky from sleep deprivation and exhaustion.

She barely managed not to fall asleep in class that day, emphasis on barely, and in rehearsals she gave one hundred percent of her all, except one hundred percent of her all on five nights without sleep wasn’t the same as one hundred percent of her all with sleep.

They had to run through the entirety of act two that day, only after two hours of random scenes that just needed work, and it’s a miracle Thalia made her way through most of it, but while lying on the table during Your Eyes, not having to do much but occasionally cough while Jeremy did the singing and shit, so she ended up closing her eyes, and then next she knew, Jeremy was shaking her awake.

Apparently, he’d gotten through most of the second verse until he realised she’d fallen asleep, and he’d stopped to wake her up, because they still had to do the last seven or so minutes of the show.

“I know you’re tired, Lia, but can we finish this real quick? And then you can sleep?” His tone was gentle, and Thalia just nodded.

“Let’s restart from the beginning of Your Eyes,” Mr. Reyes said, and this time, Thalia stayed awake, Finale B went alright, and then as soon as everyone had dispersed, Thalia laid back down on the table, Jeremy’s leather jacket from his costume and Josh’s giant Collins jacket still near her, so she grabbed them and covered herself up with them while curling up in a ball on that stupid table.

“Go ahead and sleep, Jesus Christ, Lia,” Brooke said.

“I know, I’m going to sleep, hopefully Mr. Reyes won’t kill me for skipping out on the last twenty minutes of rehearsal.” Thalia was too exhausted to even keep her eyes open at that point.

“We’re just going to run through Take Me Or Leave Me again a few times, I think, when do you need to be woken up?”

“I have to leave forty five minutes after rehearsal is done, my brain isn’t up to doing the math right now.”

“Got it,” Brooke said, taking out her phone, probably to set an alarm, and she was pretty sure Jeremy said something to her, but at that point she was already almost asleep, and was fully unconscious maybe ten seconds later.

After getting an hour of sleep after rehearsal, and an hour and a half after work but before Saturday rehearsal (which started at ten), Thalia did a little better at rehearsal, and managed to run through the entire show and do well at it.

That’s not to say that she didn’t immediately fall asleep on the nearest person she knew that she found, whether it was Christine or Jeremy Thalia didn’t know and couldn’t fucking bring herself to care if she had wanted to.

When she was shaken awake, she discovered she’d passed out on the floor _next_ to Christine and not on her and had a pillow under her head that’d been grabbed from the prop closet.

And Jeremy told her that Brooke had had to go, since she was spending Saturday night and all of Sunday with her dad, who lived half an hour away, and Christine needed to leave and go see her grandmother and have dinner with her older sister, so he was going to take her home and she was going to sleep as soon as they got to her place.

“Correction, you at least get to take a shower in my shower if you’re going to take me home,” Thalia said, standing up while clutching his arm and then leaned on him heavily, just too exhausted to stand on her own at that point.

“Correction correction, you’re going to take a shower first, because you’re rank, Thalia, holy shit,” Jeremy laughed. “When’s the last time you showered?”

“I don’t fucking know, Jer.”

Thankfully, Jeremy wasn’t running on basically no sleep and could drive, so they threw her bike in the back, picked up Olive from daycare, and Thalia ended up just setting her down in her crib before going and nearly falling asleep during a hot shower, because holy shit, hot water was so fucking soothing.

She put on just a shirt she picked from her drawer at random, not having any idea what she’d actually grabbed, and underwear, and then collapsed into bed. Thalia didn’t have to do any night shifts that night, just a few hours on Sunday afternoon and that was all.

Jeremy took maybe five minutes in her shower, and because he was smart, he had brought a change of clothes to rehearsal anyway, so he climbed into bed with her fairly quickly.

Thalia was already asleep at that point, but that was really a very good thing.

* * *

 

 __As opening night approached, fears began to rise in Thalia’s mind, one of the largest ones being that she might throw up onstage. It made sense, she’d have hella nerves and if she ate too much it could aaaall come back up real fast, and she did _not_ want to do that.

So she decided to just not eat. Which worked for the first few days, she was used to not really having enough to eat after a childhood of malnourishment, but she was working many many hours a day now, and still going to rehearsals and not sleeping much, and by the sixth day of not eating, she realised that now she wasn’t in danger of throwing up, just constantly lightheaded and in danger of passing out.

So after fourth period that day, Thalia tried to track down someone she knew in the halls. Jeremy’s third period class was just a few doors down from hers, so he was the first person she found.

“Jeremy!” She called, and he saw her, waved, and came over.

She probably looked terrified and like shit, but whatever, this was important.

“I haven’t eaten in, like, a week, because I’ve been afraid of throwing up onstage,” she blurted out.

Jeremy stared at her, then gave her a look of disbelief.

“Please tell me you’re kidding?”

“Nope.”

“Goddamnit, Lia, you don’t need to be passing out.”

“I know!”

“Here, lets get you something from the vending machine, and I’ll buy you lunch after fifth period.”

“You don’t need to do that, Jeremy.”

“I don’t mind spending five bucks if it means you won’t pass out, Lia.”

So he took her hand and led her to the nearest vending machine, finding a crumpled one dollar bill in the bottom of his backpack and smoothing it out enough for the machine to accept it.

After scanning the options for a moment, Thalia chose one of those snack bags of chips, probably not the healthiest thing in the world, but the biggest thing in the vending machine.

The pair sat down against the wall next to the machine, and Jeremy watched her carefully as she ate quietly but quickly, because she was incredibly hungry.

“I’m definitely buying you lunch,” Jeremy said, after seeing how quickly the chips had disappeared.

“You’re a godsend, Jeremy,” Thalia said.

“I do my best.”

 

* * *

On opening night, there was a flurry of getting dressed and warming up and panicking over potentially forgetting every line, and then suddenly it started.

That’s really all Thalia remembered about the stuff before the show.

But during the show, she gave it her all and then some. During Light My Candle her fake shivering didn’t seem too fake, and Jeremy only looked a little uncomfortable at the part where she halfway put her knee between his legs.

Out Tonight was so much fucking fun. The crowd seemingly belonged to her, and in a very Renée Elise Goldsberry move, she hung off that balcony for a few seconds while still singing and snapped back up and had the time of her life.

She was just in a blur of singing and acting and dancing after that, La Vie Boheme was so much fun, and suddenly she was backstage changing into her purple dress for act two.

”Lia, you did awesome this first act,” Brooke said, looking sweaty and tired but happy.

”You too.” A quick kiss was gifted to Brooke, and then she stepped into her dress and pulled it up onto her shoulders.

Now that she wasn’t moving around every second, she realised that she was really, really lightheaded. She’d eaten more today, but probably not enough.

There wasn’t much she could do about it, other than get a drink of water and pray she didn’t pass out onstage.

Somehow, she stayed conscious all of the second act. Goodbye Love was so much fun, as was literally dying and also the orgy in Contact, which was really just moving around under white sheets and whispering uncomfortably censored phrases.

And then it was over, and they we’re standing up to bow. Each cast member got a solo bow and then there were three group bows, and the crowd cheered for her when she bowed and she was smiling so hard her cheeks hurt.

Exhilarated as she was, Thalia barely made it offstage after curtain call before caving to her knees, seeing dark spots and then big black and grey blotches.

She registered someone grabbing her by the middle to prevent her from falling over, but couldn’t tell who it was or decipher who the voice was.

Vaguely, she heard Brooke and Jeremy asking if she was okay, those were voices she knew, and then Christine asking... asking her the year? She said something in response, but registered it being far too slurred to understand, and then she slumped forward, further into the arms of whoever was holding her. Jeremy, was it?

When she came to, she was laid out on her back, backstage, the rags from her costume removed and the sweater, too, leaving her in a bra, shoes, and jeans.

“Thalia, what’s my name?” She saw Brooke lean over her field of vision, and that was an easy question to answer.

“Brooke, you’re my girlfriend.”

“Oh, thank god. What year is it?”

“2019. My head hurts...”

“Okay, she’s fine,” Christine said.

“Did you eat today, Thalia?” Jeremy asked, a relieved but yet still terrified edge to his voice.

“Little bit... I think the adrenaline probably contributed to this, though.”

“Well, that and not eating for a fucking week, Lia,” Brooke said.

“Sorry... hey, at least I didn’t pass out during Finale A like I did during tech week?”

“Well, you fell asleep during that, that’s not the same thing as passing out three seconds after curtain call,” Jeremy said.

“I’m sorry...”

“As long as you’re okay... and you’re going to be eating tonight and tomorrow, you don’t need to be passing out again.”

Thalia sat up cautiously, and when the brief lightheadedness from that subsided, she kicked off her shoes and pants, leaving her in underwear and her bra, not that many other people were dressed much more.

Christine was in underwear and a bra too, Brooke had taken off her giant leather jacket and shirt, and had pulled her hair into a ponytail with her red headband.

Jeremy had his shirt off, and also there were all the other kids walking around with not a whole lot on.

Which begged the question...

“How long was I out, exactly?”

“Like, a full minute. We had to call 911, at least we could tell them twenty seconds later that you were fine,” Christine said.

“I’m going to stay down here for a minute, though,” Thalia said, laying back down on her back. “Ohh, that’s better.”

“I’ll go get you some water,” Jeremy volunteered, walking off in his boxers.

Brooke made Thalia a pillow from her discarded shirt, Christine’s, Brooke’s, and Thalia’s own sweater, and it didn’t smell great, but it was something.

Jeremy came back with his hands full, carrying a bottle of Gatorade, a cup of water, plus a bunch of vending machine food.

Thalia scooched over to a wall and leaned up against it to eat and drink, and meanwhile most everyone else went off and changed at one point or another, Christine just into a giant baggy white t-shirt, Brooke and Jeremy into their regular clothes, and the other kids into whatever, Thalia couldn’t bring herself to care.

Jeremy’s dad, Brooke’s parents, Christine’s parents, and Michael and his moms all came backstage a bit later, and Brooke’s mom gave Thalia a Tylenol out of her purse, which was greatly appreciated.

Finally, Thalia felt okay enough to stand, but just pulled on athletic shorts and her silky green robe, exactly what she’d brought to change into after the show, and it wasn’t too hot with clothes on, which was good.

“You were awesome, Thalia, I wanted to cheer from downstage while you were doing Out Tonight,” Jeremy said while she was pulling on her robe.

“How exciting was it, getting to see me hang upside down with just my legs hooked to railings while singing, and being right below me?”

“It was an interesting angle to see you from, I could see everything in you straining to stay up. But it was cool.”

“Good. Do you feel okay? After all the kissy times?”

“Yeah, I think I’m fine.”

“Thank god for that.”

“How do you feel? After all the passing out times?”

“Much better than before.”

“How the fuck did you pull off Out Tonight while undoubtedly being incredibly lightheaded? You didn’t look lightheaded or dizzy at all.”

“Magic.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> come screech with me on tumblr, im @justiceforalanabeck


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